The other morning Megan was complaining of how tired she was because she didn’t get to sleep until late. Her hamster, Macaroni, had taken a piece or two of corn into her solid, plastic wheel and the corn was bouncing around as she ran in the wheel. The noise was keeping Meg awake, she tried a pillow over her ears to try to suffocate the noise, tried humming to drown out the noise, and then just tried ignoring it which obviously didn’t work. I asked her if Macaroni had put the corn back in her wheel after Meg got up to take it out of the wheel – blank stare. “Mom, I didn’t get up to take the corn out, I tried to ignore the noise and hoped the corn would fall out on it’s own.” Well, the waiting game worked at some point since there was not corn in the wheel come morning. How long did she wait for the problem to self correct when she could have rectified it so much quicker by putting forth a little energy by getting up and taking the corn out of the wheel? She was afterall, already exerting energy and action by humming and holding a pillow over her ears, why not direct the action and energy towards a solution rather than a way to mask the situation and pretend it isn’t happening. She was losing sleep over something that could have been resolved quicker than it had been.
How often do we do this in life, ignore a problem hoping it will go away on it’s own. I think most of us do, I know I do. Sometimes the situation does resolve itself but more often than not, without some energy and action on our part, the problem just lingers and keeps coming back to get you. I am not saying that once a situation is resolved that another won’t arise but atleast one is behind you and you can stop trying to pretend it doesn’t exist and enjoy life for awhile.
